Keep an eye on the Clearvale Product Updates blog for details on upcoming Clearvale releases. We'll be adding blogs over the next couple of weeks with more details about the upcoming May release.

Clearvale offers organizations extreme flexibility and scalability. But what about security?  Here are some measures that Clearvale takes to protect your information:

• Secure Network Access: You have full control over who can access your network. You can require that network members be invited to join, are approved before they can access the site, and provide a specific email domain. Additionally, you can ban certain email domains.
• Multi-tier Entitlement: Your data is protected from unauthorized members in your organization. The members have privacy/security controls at the network level, at the community level, at the intra-community level, and all the way down to individual documents within the system.
• Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology: This ensures server authentication and data encryption. With premium service, we can support up to 256-bit encryption (SSL).
• Full firewall protection and virtual private connections: We rigorously guard our system from security risks via publicly accepted internet technologies, such as firewall and security auditing. Virtual private connection can restrict the access only within your workplace.
• Safe use of cookies: The browser “cookie” doesn’t contain personal information like user profiles and passwords.

If you have questions, please visit the Clearvale Developer Forum community. We’ve started a forum thread dedicated to Clearvale security.

We published a new feature spotlight on using Clearvale notifications. Read about how you can configure your notifications so that you don't miss new or changed information on your network.

To better help our members, the Clearvale Connect team is performing a spring cleaning. We'll be removing some communities and adding content to existing ones. One of the communities that we will remove is Clearvale Expert. If you are a member of this community, you do not need to do anything; just be aware that this community will be closed by April 7, 2010.  We recommend that you check out the Clearvale Developer Forum community instead. In the coming weeks, we'll add information about the Clearvale API, messages from product managers, and so forth. Please check it out!

Groups offer us many benefits: People in organized communities exchange ideas, learn from and offer help and support to one another, and act as each other’s advocates. It makes sense, then, that students often form their own study groups when taking classes. Where one person is weak another might offer insight, and everyone can benefit. Additionally, the feedback we receive from peers can reinforce new concepts and correct wrong assumptions. However, with the popularity of online education today, students might not have the opportunity to leverage group culture effectively to enhance their learning experiences. For example, while the utter convenience of attending class at your own desk at any hour is wonderful, you might have found that many online courses offer only very circumscribed methods of interacting with other students—or even with the instructors. This is a shame, because a key finding in an October 2008 Gartner report states that educators “realize that students who study in groups are more engaged in their studies, better prepared for class and learn more than students who work alone.”[1]
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Online education does not have to rely on a Web 1.0, one-way communication model, though. With Facebook now possessing the honor of number one US site, many people are very familiar with the interactive, community-centric paradigm of Web 2.0. But would you use a social networking site to enhance online learning? Probably not. An Enterprise Social Networking product designed with organizations in mind, however, can help improve students’ online learning experiences by encouraging interaction and community building within a network created for a specific purpose.

Where the students reside does not hinder a community from forming, either. The Gartner report states that a “learning community is a group of people linked by a shared interest that work collaboratively to fulfill the learning needs of the community members.” A logical approach to online learning, then, is to leverage the natural affinity of the learning group; using a tool designed around communities can be an important element in harnessing the value that comes out of group culture.

For example, if a college or department already has a Clearvale network, an instructor teaching an online programming class could create a community named “Java Programming 101: Fall 2010.” The community would be a location dedicated to the class—a place to which classmates can come and easily exchange information with the teacher and with each other by using a variety of mechanisms: calendars, files, forums, photos and images, message boards, presentations, and even video. Additionally, students could create profiles that include photos, interests, and so forth so that classmates are not mere names on message boards. The following sections describe some of the community building benefits of these features.

Calendars

Listing important dates in a community calendar that students can see at any time is a simple way for instructors to help their students. And if students live near each other and want to meet or simply coordinate online activities, they can use the calendar to schedule these things.

Files

In an online environment, instructors and students rely on technology to post class information and homework assignments and to turn in completed projects. Using something like Clearvale’s DocuVault feature can make uploading and accessing files easier—right from within the learning community. Instructors need not worry about sending messages with assignments to incorrect email addresses or receiving bounce replies. And when a file is uploaded, community members can comment on or ask questions about it for others to see. For example, if an uploaded assignment is missing a page, a comment in the community can alert the instructor, who can fix it before receiving numerous emails stating the same thing.

Forums

Forums offer an easy mechanism for students to exchange information with each other and to ask questions. Students can post comments or ask questions, and classmates can even rate the questions or responses. What is nice about having forums reside within a community is that students must go to the community to obtain class information anyway; not having to login to a separate forum to participate in class discussions can help encourage students to contribute to the online conversations; they can even view a video in the community and simultaneously comment on it in a forum.

Message Boards

Message boards are useful for short notes. For example, the instructor can use the message board within the class community to remind students about an upcoming holiday or a change in assignments. Message boards may not be the most crucial feature in a community, but they serve a community-building role—much like the bulletin boards in many neighborhood businesses do.

Photos and Images

Depending on the topic taught, photos and images can be useful learning tools. For example, an instructor teaching a Java course may want to post an image to illustrate the concept of object oriented design. Once posted, students can directly comment on the image and even start discussions.

Presentations and Videos

An instructor might want to use a PowerPoint presentation for some of the online class lectures, and Clearvale offers the ability to view presentations from within communities. Additionally, posting videos is easy too, so an instructor can create a video lecture and upload it for class members to see. Instructors can even give students assignments in which they must make their own videos to upload.

Personal Profiles

Personal profiles in Clearvale allow class members to post their photos and include information about themselves; rather than signing into an online forum to become “virtually” introduced to other members, students can look at photos of class members and read about their interests. They can subsequently contact members through Clearvale’s messaging feature, or they can post comments to someone’s profile page. When classmates are geographically dispersed, using mechanisms such as personal profiles (with which many people are already familiar because of social networking sites) can encourage a sense of belonging.

The ability to interact in so many ways within a Clearvale environment contrasts with the approach where student “interaction mostly occurs through an online threaded discussion that allows students and instructors to interact in asynchronous time.”[2] And while an online class cannot completely replicate a classroom setting, where people sit next to and speak with each other, it can offer students a more compelling learning opportunity than what is sometimes offered today—but only if community building tactics are smartly leveraged.

Check out our new Feature Spotlight on using communities. Read this document for guidelines on creating and managing a community.

We have a new feature on Clearvale Connect called Network Spotlight. With Network Spotlight, we present a successful Clearvale network for members to check out; learn how another organization has used Clearvale, what tasks and projects Clearvale has helped with, and who has benefited from the implementation.

Our first spotlight is on the QuickSilver Connection network.

If you are creating a community or have recently created one, here are some tips to help it run effectively:

-Include a description of your community. If you already created a community, click Edit under your community name to add a description. A description that includes the community's purpose can alleviate confusion regarding the community's goals. For example, you might create a community named Marketing Materials. While this name is specific, you could include more detail in the description: "Use this community to find our most recent logos, press releases, articles, and positioning documents. For competitive information, go to the Competitive Library Community."

-Only include the widgets that your community needs. Using only the widgets your community requires helps to keep your page clutter-free and the community focused. For example, if you have a community named 2010 Q2 Marketing Budget, you might not need to include the Photos widget on the page. To edit your page, select Edit page layout near the top right of the community and select or remove the widgets you need.

-Use the Community Directory widget. This is one of my favorite widgets because it acts as a shortcut to community page information. Instead of scrolling down to see, for example, a forum widget, a member can go to the community directory widget and simply click on Forums. Additionally, until you configure a widget, you might not see anything in it, even if content exists (see next point).

-Configure individual widgets. To configure widgets, click EDIT near the top of the widget. Each widget can be configured differently. For instance, you might want to display several Twitter feeds but only the latest DocuVault file. Additionally, you might only want community members to see certain information, even if your community is open to all. You customize what and how much your widgets display and to whom.

-Decide who can join your community. Click Edit under your community name and scroll down to Membership. If your community exists for a specific group, select Invitation Only. If everyone on the network can have access to your community, select Open.

-Monitor your community. Just like in any group, discussions may get off topic. Check your community to see how people interact, if they have questions, and whether or not the community organization needs adjustment. You can always drag widgets off of your community page or add new ones.

-Consider file organization in advance. If you use the DocuVault feature, you probably know that you can organize files in many categories; the flexibility makes this feature powerful. However, consider how you want your categories and sub-categories to appear and what purposes they serve

-Participate in discussions. Sometimes people are shy about participating in a community. As the community owner, make sure to participate yourself and to encourage discussion.

-Manage members. Select Manage Members to see if anyone is requesting to join your community or if you want to invite new members. Additionally, to remove someone from your community, go to the Members tab, select a member's icon, and use the drop down arrow that appears in the lower right corner to choose Remove from community.

We will be rolling out the February release of Clearvale shortly.  Here is a quick preview of the main features in this release:

• Community Cloning. In addition to cloning your network, you can now clone an individual community. When you clone a community, you create a new community based on the original community. You control whether to copy the existing community members and community content into the new community.  Cloning is a Premium Service and must be enabled for your network.
• Teamwork enhancements. In particular:
  • Shortcut buttons are provided for moving goals and tasks within a plan.
  • The task details page is now organized into tabs. It includes a tab for adding links to content in your network that is related to your goal or task.
  • You can receive notifications when you are assinged a goal or task.
• Better control of user names. By default, your first and last name identify you within Clearvale. You can specify a display name to use instead.
• UI improvements. In particular:
  • The steps for creating and signing into a new Clearvale network are simplified. The “Admin” user is no longer created. Instead, the person creating the network is the administrator.
  • A widget named Get Started appears when you create a new network. Use this widget to quickly configure your network, add content, and invite network members. To remove the widget, click the red checkbox.
  • A different version of the Get Started widget also appears when a new network member logs into the network. They can use this widget to quickly set up their profile, join communities, and add content.
  • The network administration pages are simplified and streamlined. In addition, the Show on Home Page control lets you configure your site so that new content automatically appears on the home page or requires the administrator to “bump it up” to the home page.
  • Inviting network members is easier, and you can preview the email message before sending it.
  • Several widget names have changed. For example, instead of having three different polling widgets (Latest Polls, Community Polls, and My Polls), Clearvale now provides the Polls widget that you can place on any page.
• Improved search results presentation.
• Siebel integration. You can now integrate Siebel with Clearvale. Contact BroadVision for help with this integration.
• Ads appear at the top of the Clearvale window instead of being displayed within the canvas of the page. To remove the ads, contact BroadVision about the Ad Removal Premium Service.
• Several bugs have been fixed.

Is your Clearvale network set up so that it requires network members to sign in to see the content? Have you changed your mind and decided to allow guest users to see some or all of your network content? One of the nice features of Clearvale is that it is never too late to change your mind! To open your network to guest users, make these changes:

Clearvale is ringing in the new year with a new release! Here is a quick summary of the new features:

• Refreshed user interface. Clearvale is sporting a new, cleaner user interface. A couple things to note about the user interface refresh:
  • You may need to fine-tune the appearance of your network by using the Appearance editor (select Admin>Appearance). In particular, if you used a custom background image, you will need to re-import that image. You may also need to fine-tune some of the colors. A quick fix is to apply one of the new color-based themes to your network. Note that this overwrites any custom settings you previously set.
  • Menu items that used to appear on the left side of some pages now appear across the top of the page.
• Cloning an existing network. Available as a Premium Service, you can clone an existing network to create a duplicate network. Contact BroadVision about enabling this feature in your network.
  
• Private labeling. Another Premium Service, this feature gives you full control over your network URL.
• Preview DocuVault files. Instead of downloading a file, you can now preview a file. Use this option when you want to read a document but don’t need to print or edit the document. To preview a document, click the document icon associated with the file.
• Create a new network, quicker. The network creation process has been simplified.
• Improved search results. When you conduct a search for a term, the three most relevant results for each category are displayed followed by a link for full search results within that category.
• Teamwork enhancements:
  • When you create goals and tasks, you no longer need to number these manually as the numbers are automatically generated.
  • You can copy and paste goals and tasks within the current plan as well into a new plan.
  • You can export your plan to Excel to see a summary of goals and tasks.
• A few new features we introduced over the past month:
  • The Pages widget lets you create native content on any page in your network.
  • The Feed widget lets you include an RSS feed on any page in your network.
  • The Feedback link now sends the comments to the network administrator.
  • Several bugs have been fixed.

Your Clearvale network has been updated with a new release of Clearvale. The main feature in this new release is a refreshed user interface--hopefully you like the new look!

If you are not satisfied with the look of your site, select Admin>Appearance and adjust your network appearance as needed. Probably the simplest approach is to select one of the predefined color themes and click Save.

Also, if you previously used a white background, you will not be able to see the icons in the top menu bar. For best results, choose a background that is a darker color so that the white icons are clearly visible.

The benefits open enrollment process presents challenges to organizations of all sizes. Rising costs, plan changes, and shifting workforce demographics contribute to making open enrollment a time-consuming one for Human Resources personnel and employees. However, you can leverage Clearvale communities to help ease the workload. Read more to see how Clearvale can help you.

There are several new FAQ documents on Clearvale Connect today. You can find them in the left column of the home page, with the product documentation.

Clearvale was upgraded this past weekend and includes several new features and usability improvements.

Improved notifications. You now have more granular control over the notifications that you want to receive. You can set notification preferences for the following types of content:

• Your content
• Network member or contact content
• Community content

You can specify if you want be notified of these changes, and if so, where to deliver the notification messages. Delivery options include:

• Your email inbox
• Your network inbox (the envelope icon in the top menu bar)
• Your network notifications (the clipboard icon in the top menu bar)

To change your notification preferences, click the Edit Profile link. Then click Member Notifications or Community Notifications.

Improved search. When you conduct a search in your Clearvale network, Adobe PDF and Microsoft Office 2000 and 2007 documents are also searched. For example, if you have uploaded Word or Excel files into a DocuVault, these documents are now included in the search results.

Report to Admin link. As a network member, you can flag content that you do not think is appropriate for your network by clicking the Report to Admin link. The network administrator can then decide whether to leave the content or remove it. This feature is essential for "self-policing" environments wherein members can report issues (say, if a person posts an inappropriate photo) and corrective measures can be taken by the network administrator.

Support for 8 languages. Clearvale now supports the following languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, German, Italian, Spanish, and French.

Usability improvements. Several changes were made to improve the Clearvale user experience. For example:

• When you specify a sorting preference for content (such as blogs or photos), Clearvale remembers your preference and sorts the content accordingly in the future.
• Clearvale displays calendar and countdown events in chronological order. Also, you can specify the start or end time for an event or task in 15-minute-increments instead of 30.
• When listing communities to which you belong, Clearvale lists only communities of the current network. (Previously, communities to which you belonged in other networks also appeared.)
• Creating a new network is easier. Several fields were removed from the network creation page. The network administrator can fine-tune the network behavior by using the Admin>Network Administration page to specify network details such as approved and banned email domains.
• All times displayed in Clearvale are now automatically adjusted to your computer's locale. For example, if a member in Massachusetts updates a file at 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, the update appears to have taken place at 10:00 AM Pacific Standard Time to members in California.
• The Teamwork user interface has been improved. In particular:
  • The flow of pages is more aligned with the expected use of Teamwork. For example, when you create a new Teamwork plan, the Plan Checkpoint page appears automatically so that you can add checkpoints for your plan.
  • When you create a new plan, a placeholder top goal is provided. You can modify that goal and then add sub-goals and tasks.
  • Task creation is simplified. Several fields were removed making it easier to add tasks.
  • The Task Details page allows you to maintain details about your tasks and activities over a period of three checkpoints.
  • Several buttons have been renamed with more descriptive names.

• The November release also includes several bug fixes.

Welcome to the Clearvale Connect (CVC for short), and thanks for joining us.

CVC is intended as the main destination for support, advice and discussion for Clearvale network administrators and power users. It includes documentation, tutorials and forums to help you with your initial setup of your network, and the ongoing administration and enhancement of it.

CVC is still fairly new, so you'll see some parts of the network don't have a lot of content yet. We'll be adding content regularly over the coming weeks and months. I'm the editor of CVC, but you'll see content from lots of different people in BroadVision, including the publications, training, support and sales teams. And of course, this is a social network, so we welcome all contributions from members.

We'd really like to know what you think of CVC so far, so please let us know - I've created a forum for this feedback. And CVC is open to everyone who is interested in getting the most out of Clearvale, so please feel free to invite your friends and colleagues.

best regards,

Richard Hughes
Editor, Clearvale Connect